Today's ride in Central Kentucky *w/Pics*

[CCHOUSEKY]

Last year, I found a goldmine of a local forum and have met some great friends and riders. It's all sportbikes and the thing I love about it is most of the riders are older, more experienced riders than I am so they're great to learn from. We try and get a group together nearly every nice weekend and the size can range from 3-4 bikes all the way up to the massive ride a couple weeks ago that included 27 bikes. There's every kind of sportbike, too. Anything from a 2008 Ninja 250 that our group's "little sister" rides to our newest addition, a Ducati Paul Smart 1000LE (which just takes my breath away every time I see it!).

Anyway, we had a nice ride today around some of the twisties we don't hit that often. 4 bikes and I was the only Japanese brand...lol. Two Ducatis...the Paul Smart and a 2007 Ducati ST3 and a Triumph 675. It was a ton of fun and the conversations at each stop were almost as good as the riding itself.

Anyway, here's a few pics from the ride...

Gassing up:

The aforementioned Ducati Paul Smart...grrrrrrrrrrr :rockon:

At one of our stops. Notice the HUGE rusted hole in the door on the building? The car wash was closed up and basically has turned into one big bird sanctuary...lol. They were flying in and out of there like crazy!

Taking a break and talking bikes...

More to follow...

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

And now the obligatory "pose for the camera" shots...

Ducati ST3:

Triumph 675 Triple:

Ducati Paul Smart 1000LE:

And, of course, my FZ6: :thumbup:

On the way home, I decided to get myself some new wallpaper (for the computer), so I stopped in front of one of our local attractions. It's a castle that sat uncompleted for nearly 20 years until an investor bought it and turned it into a high-end bed and breakfast.

 

[lazamus69]

Nice shots and bikes...:thumbup:

 

[jrf]

Hey, I don't want to thread hijack but how did you find a local forum in your area. I live up in NE Kentucky and can not find any local forums anywhere, just wondering were you looked to find yours.

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

Actually, I can't remember exactly how I found it, but I guess there's no problem in just posting the address, right? LOL. I don't know why I was being so stealthy about it.

It's Kentucky-Sportbikes.com. Don't forget the hyphen. You should definitely check it out as it's a great spot for getting together group rides or just meeting other riders. At this point there are two major groups on the forum...the group I've been riding with for the last year that are from the Louisville-Lexington-Northern Kentucky triangle (some from further south, some further east, but generally Central Kentucky), and there's a large group down in far Western Kentucky (Paducah, Bowling Green, Western Tennessee).

As far as I know, myself and one other guy are the only FZ6 owners on there at this point. It would be great to have you come down and ride with us sometime and depending on where you are in NE Kentucky, it shouldn't be that far to come for a day. :thumbup:

 

[FZyLarry]

Beautiful pics Mr. Chouskey - as always. If I had to trade my southern California home, I think it would be for one in the Kentucky/Ohio valley area.

I agree with you on the Ducati, how could you not just slobber all over it while you were riding

 

[LERecords]

awesome... nice bikes and i love that one with your 6 in front of the castle... its just sweet looking...

and a quick question.. im going to be putting on my top rack soon.. how is the brake light after putting it on.. do you think its ok or should i opt for some suplemental lighting??? thanks man

 

[gpd211]

Anyway, we had a nice ride today around some of the twisties we don't hit that often.

care to give some road numbers. I'm in SE Indiana and always looking for new roads

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

I agree with you on the Ducati, how could you not just slobber all over it while you were riding

LOL...the only thing that keeps me from slobbering all over it while riding is the fact that it's ALWAYS in front of me. I just love the classic look of that bike and the exhaust note that it produces, even before he puts either the Zards or Termis on it, is just amazing!

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

and a quick question.. im going to be putting on my top rack soon.. how is the brake light after putting it on.. do you think its ok or should i opt for some suplemental lighting??? thanks man

I went with some supplemental lighting myself. The rack does shield the taillight from the sun, IMO making it easier to see during daylight. But I wanted something that would give me more brake light, so I added a brake light modulator to flash the brake light 5 times and then go solid and added two Hyperlights under the exhaust (I attached them to the Givi mount that goes around the exhaust cover). Here's a picture of the setup and a video of what it looks like.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7Jfu7gNYak[/ame]

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

care to give some road numbers. I'm in SE Indiana and always looking for new roads

Let me get a list together and I'll be sure to post them up. We've got TONS of great roads in the Central Kentucky (and close by) area. If you go just east of Lexington, towards Daniel Boone National Forest, it's like a twisty-rider's dream.

 

[FZ1inNH]

Wow! Thanks for sharing those great pics! :thumbup:

Wish I were there to ride with you guys.

Someday, we'll get the chance to ride together.... Maybe we can start planning a BIG FZ6 meet somewhere central to "most"?

 

[LERecords]

that is a sweet setup.. hope you dont mind but i might copy that as it seems like it would realoly jump out at the people behind you.. good setup man.. thanks for the pictures...

hey.. can you fit a set of hard side bags with your signals??? it looks liek you have an FE and i want to keep my original turn signals, but not relocate them to the givi brakets.. your fender looks skinny enough to make it i think

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

Wow! Thanks for sharing those great pics! :thumbup:

Wish I were there to ride with you guys.

Someday, we'll get the chance to ride together.... Maybe we can start planning a BIG FZ6 meet somewhere central to "most"?

If you're ever going to be down in the Central Kentucky area (who knows?), you're more than welcome to ride with us! We're always open to new riders and have a great group with very, very few :squid:. LOL.

Aren't you going to the FZ6 meet at the Gap in June? I seriously thought about going since it's only about 4 hours from me, but we're having a Kentucky-Sportbikes.com meet in July, so I decided to wait for that one.

 

[Jake]

Thanks for sharing the pics. Those Ducs have quite a sound don't they :thumbup:

Group riding with good people is hard to beat. Especially when you find a mix of folks who are both responsible AND like to carve it up on the backroads. When you find those people it's epic.

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

that is a sweet setup.. hope you dont mind but i might copy that as it seems like it would realoly jump out at the people behind you.. good setup man.. thanks for the pictures...

hey.. can you fit a set of hard side bags with your signals??? it looks liek you have an FE and i want to keep my original turn signals, but not relocate them to the givi brakets.. your fender looks skinny enough to make it i think

Thanks! Absolutely copy it if you like it! I actually got the idea from looking at Boneman's FZ6 website (I get lots of ideas from him!), so it's not like I invented it...lol. I get lots of positive comments about the taillights, so I guess it really does work.

Actually, I had the sidecase racks (the Givi ones that work with the FZ351 topcase mount), but just never got around to getting the sidecases so I sold them. But I'm fairly certain that the sidecases will work with the FAZR6 FE that I've got on there. It moves the signals a lot further inboard than other fender eliminators that I've seen and in just eyeballing it with the racks on there but no cases, it would work. If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me as I don't want to spread false info...lol.

As far as the brake light modulator goes, I just mounted it under the seat in an area that doesn't get used anyway.

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

Thanks for sharing the pics. Those Ducs have quite a sound don't they :thumbup:

Group riding with good people is hard to beat. Especially when you find a mix of folks who are both responsible AND like to carve it up on the backroads. When you find those people it's epic.

I couldn't agree more! I've gotten so lucky to find a great group that's experienced, responsible, and welcome riders of a lesser skill level than themselves. I think I've got somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 miles in my riding career (re: not a lot) and some of the guys I ride with are in the million mile range, so there's lots I can learn from them and they're willing to teach, so it's really nice!

 

[Hatch81]

There's just something spectacular about castles isn't there, every time I see one on TV or in pictures I'm always amazed.

 

[CCHOUSEKY]

I know! What is it about castles??? That thing was built during my childhood and sat mostly complete for 20-25 years. I can remember people always talking about what it looked like on the inside, but no one really knowing because the guy who built it did so for his wife but ran out of money before he ever got to finish it. At least, that's the story I always heard.

Then, along comes some enterprising buyer who finally takes up the cause and buys it from the original builder. Everyone was excited that you'd finally get the chance to see the inside. Then, as they were doing the remodeling, a HUGE fire broke out in the main central building and pretty much leveled it. It was so depressing! But the new owner trudged on and rebuilt it bigger and better than ever and now it's a high-end bed and breakfast (I think). I remember seeing a story on the news when it was about to open and the "turret rooms" were supposed to go for like a grand a night...whew. Too much for me to ever get to see the inside, but at least somebody can!

*edit* Actually, it's like a high-end hotel, apparently. I Googled the name..."Castle Post", and found the website. Pretty cool stuff and I see the Turret Rooms go for $1250 a night! Jeez...

http://www.thecastlepost.com/

 

[jrf]

I kind of remember them building it when I lived in Lexington. I was like 8 or 9 years old back then. I never did see it until last year when I drove past there going to Mammoth Caves. I have to say, the pics don't do it justice, that place is HUGE.